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E36 (1991 - 1999) The E36 chassis 3-Series BMW was a huge hit among driving enthusiasts from the first moment the car hit the pavement. The E36 won numerous awards over the years it was produced and is still a favorite of many BMW enthusiasts to this day! -- View the E36 Wiki

I was speaking to my auto-elec last night and he seems to think that the sound output from my E36 '95 (6 speaker setup =[ ) would sound 10x better with a better head-unit / stereo,...what are your thoughts on that?

If I am to get one, I'd like a few must have options; any ideas on which head unit to get?

My stock radio was pretty much gone and went aftermarket, and I have to say it sounds really good and I still have all stock speakers. I'm not an audiophile but here is what I got I believe it fits all your specs and is around mid range price. http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...specifications. The only thing is its blue when lit up.

I don't know mate. Seams like no one wants a stereo to match the interior lights, it's all about the blue LEDs, the PO of my car put a nice Alpine head unit in it, but if I'm driving on the interstate at night it's more comfortable to flip the faceplate open so the stupid blue and green lights aren't blinding me. I'm thinking about building my own system with a touch screen hooked up to a computer and than just hook up a CD drive, GPS antenna, and what have you to USB ports

I don't know mate. Seams like no one wants a stereo to match the interior lights, it's all about the blue LEDs, the PO of my car put a nice Alpine head unit in it, but if I'm driving on the interstate at night it's more comfortable to flip the faceplate open so the stupid blue and green lights aren't blinding me. I'm thinking about building my own system with a touch screen hooked up to a computer and than just hook up a CD drive, GPS antenna, and what have you to USB ports

You make an excellent point Miles, I find it strange why people don't care about matching their head unit w/their interior..seems to me like it almost defeats the purpose. If it's a really really good head unit, then the least it could do is match your interior.
I'd go as far to say that not having the colours match, detracts from the overall appearance..how would you build your own system and integrate it?

First, there is not enough space for a 7" screen, there are multiple solutions such as moving the OBC down into the empty space in front of the gear selector and move the climate control down to where the OBC. My plan is to put the climate control where the OBC is, but I want to relocate the OBC to where the dome lights are above the rear view mirror, I think it will look sweet as.

As for the system, I figure one of these cheap ****ty computers is a good place to start, hook it up to one of these touch screens. I'm planning to mount the screen so it can fold down and I can mount a CD drive, media card hub, Ipod hookup, etc in the dash behind it, and than all of the above would connect back to the netbook. I would also hook up a USB FM tuner and GPS antenna, maybe a camera for insurance purposes. To connect it all to the speakers, I would use a USB sound card, since the sound card in that computer is probably ****, and than just hook that up to the amp. I figure about $400-$500 for a sweet as, and virtually infinitely expandable system. I figure that down the line I will probably add features like oil temp/ pressure and if I ever get around to boosting the car, I figure the computer will keep track of that as well so I don't have to mess with extra gauges and knobs

I upgraded recently to a JVC head unit. Has aux input, USB connection front and rear ( It comes with a blue tooth adaptor that I connected to the USB in the rear for hands free phone ).
Sounds awesome and you can change the colour of the text on screen to any colour including amber :-)

I'm a few thousand km's from home right now so I can't tell you the exact model but I'll have a look when I get back home.